The multimedia playing system made with the integration of a computer system and an audiovisual player is gaining popularity and is widely used on many occasions, including offices and households, because the rapid development of computer technology.
The design of the conventional multimedia playing systems is basically interfacing a computer system with an audiovisual player. With this type of design, the user usually needs to boot the computer system up in order to activate and operate the audiovisual player. In other words, the user must wait until the computer system completes the BIOS program initialization, POST program, peripheral detection and driving, OS activation, system state setting, and so on, before the user can execute the audiovisual program to play the audiovisual data. It is inconvenient for the user as there is no shortcut to bypass the tedious booting process of the computer system. Similar problems also occur in a computer system having navigation function.
To overcome the aforementioned drawback, the current technology utilizes different designs to implement express execution of multimedia playing. These designs configure a different partition in the hard-disk and install a first operating system, such as Linux-based OS, and a second operation system, such as a Windows OS, in different hard-disk partitions. These designs require modification to the computer BIOS. The user can select the execution of PC mode or the AV mode by depressing its power button or specific hotkey respectively. When the user selects the AV mode, the computer system does not execute the usual booting process when the computer is turned on. Instead, the computer system loads and executes a first operating system in the first hard-disk partition, and drives the audiovisual player. That is, the user does not enter the Windows OS; therefore, the time waiting for the system to finish the initialization of the hardware is saved.
However, the current implementations still requires the user to memorize the operation instruction and follow strictly in order to select between the PC mode and the AV mode (or navigation mode). This lack of ease of use is still inconvenient for the user.
Although some designs display operation instructions on the monitor to guide the user, this display of instruction usually takes place after the computer systems enters the operating system mode; therefore, it does not meet the demands of express execution of playing multimedia data or express execution of navigation function.
Furthermore, as most designs require the user to enter their selections through keyboard or mouse, which are only activated after the computer system enters the operating system mode, it is still inconvenient for the user.